


Gristol Cider

by adrift_me



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amortentia, Fluff, Love Has A Scent, M/M, Romance, Scents & Smells, Soulmate Variation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 19:24:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12196107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adrift_me/pseuds/adrift_me
Summary: Love is a many splendored thing and to everyone on the Isles it’s a common knowledge that love is first and foremost a scent.Why is it that I suddenly feel?





	Gristol Cider

**Author's Note:**

> Playing off the idea of Amortentia from HP universe. Anyone wants a nsfw version of this? ;) 
> 
> [Come chat with me on tumblr :) I also take prompts! ](https://a-driftamongopenstars.tumblr.com/)

Love is a many splendored thing and to everyone on the Isles it’s a common knowledge that love is first and foremost a  _ scent _ .

They feel it wherever they go, it follows them like a devoted pet, always reminding of their loved ones. Whalers smell fresh bed sheets and burning fireplaces where their partners wait ashore; bank clerks smell expensive perfumes of the ladies and gentlemen they visit and occasionally fall in love with. There is always something to tickle their nose and not a person goes by without a silly smile on their face, their minds twined over and over with romance.

When Corvo was young, unabashed and bold, when he came to the balconies to swirl his Empress in a dance, when he received secret smiles and sent letters, it always smelled like spring. All the sweetness of white blossoms Jessamine put in her hair and the spicy scent of her perfume, it always followed Corvo in his wake.

Like for any other person on the Isles, the scent of his lover enveloped him, a cocoon of romance that would make his head go dizzy and never let him forget about Jessamine for a moment. 

When Jessamine died, the world changed for Corvo. He now smells damp soil and that one sour scent of death which would sometimes make him throw up till he sees stars in his eyes and his throat burns.

The Rat Plague made the world so much uglier. No more happy smiles and delightful chuckles of lovers asking what they feel when they breath. Now it is all medicine, soil, corpses and burning whale oil. People are crying and begging for it to stop, but their bodies refuse and continue infusing their lungs with disgust.

Corvo feels for the citizens. He had time in prison to learn to accept the stench, to ignore it or write it off to the plague which washes over the streets. But they never had a chance of pushing it away, starving for fresh air and hating on each other, only not to feel this sickening tang of illness.

With a task of saving Emily at hand, Corvo doesn’t spare concentration or patience, and thus barely notices how much easier he suddenly begins to breathe.

Subtly, every so slowly, a fresh crispy air is pouring down his lungs as he inhales the oceanside wind, gulps it down as it clears. And then he does notice when his brain asks for more and more and he can’t get enough, standing over the shore and simply… breathing.

A wave washes off a carved rune into the sand.

Corvo picks it up as it hits the tip of his boot. Traces the black mark, matching the one on his hand. He wonders if it’s the Outsider’s gift, a few minutes of clear breathing just to let him rest before facing the target. His heart may be broken, but would the Outsider understand the concept of such?

Except that it never stops again. Every day he wakes up with his lungs clear and fresh. Air becomes rich with the happy tang of ocean salt, only ever touched by the subtle trace of blood smell. Corvo is used to it, ignores it.

Life changes from that moment on. He feels how the smell of grave is replaced by sweetness of something he can’t place. How the stench of burning rotting blood is now a tang of ocean salt.

He wonders what caused such a change. His heart seems devoid of love and feelings, he has no one to hold in his arms and nobody comes to share his blanket. 

“Is it always like this?” The Outsider says vaguely after one of his teaching monologues by the shrine. Corvo has almost slipped a mask back when the question comes and he pauses. What makes him wonder is the lack of the vocabulary flourish he is so used to hearing from the god. 

“Like what?”

“So full scents.”

The Outsider looks as confused as he sounds, his neutral face touched with a shadowy wrinkle of a frown. Corvo can't help a small surprised smile. 

“It is. Do you not remember?”

“It has never been quite so strong when I was human. Or I indeed forgot. But now, Corvo, these smells are not as varied as I imagined them to be. All I feel is blood and whiskey and a mix of fabric and sweat. It's oddly appealing despite the sound. And right now I feel a sweet smell of apples. A bit spicy. Why?”

Corvo’s smile freezes. He licks his lips which still bear a taste of the Gristol cider he gulped down at one of the apartments he passed through. Blood trickles slowly down his coat, an accident when he didn't manage to Blink far enough while running and fell. 

“It's infuriating not to understand and the Void offers little answers. It has no smell, no feeling. Why is it that I suddenly  _ feel _ ?”

Corvo wonders the same question, why his throat suddenly feels leather and salt in the air. 

He takes a closer step to the shrine where the Outsider stops hovering and lets himself stand firmly on the ground, losing height over Corvo. 

Corvo places a hand on the Outsider's shoulder and suddenly the world is everything, fresh and clear and so full of delight. He can taste even on his tongue. 

It's too hard to resist. 

The Outsider's lips tell him the answer to every question, voiced or left in the deep of the throat. He wants to drink that very Gristol cider off his lips, wants to let that tongue into his mouth to see if he could get a breath of the Void’s ocean depths. 

He feels like he is falling, the world around him shaking, and suddenly there is Void all around him, the Outsider's hands all over him and his lips are bitten and kissed. 

He melts into the deity and wonders if eternity has a smell. He would probably have to endure it as a price for falling in love with a god. 


End file.
